California grants citizens (of the world?) the human right to water

Posted onSeptember 28, 2012|Comments Off on California grants citizens (of the world?) the human right to water

Governor Brown has signed AB685 making California the first state in the nation to declare safe, clean, affordable and accessible water a human right. Sounds good, but read this sentence very carefully. (click here)

“California’s failure to provide clean, safe drinking water to its residents captured the attention of the United Nations in a special report released in August 2010. Reporting on her mission to the United States, Catarina de Albuquerque, the U.N. Special Rapportuer on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, cited a host of alarming drinking water supply and sanitation conditions in California.”

It’s California’s fault that its citizens do not have drinking water, so there must be more laws and government to make this happen, like a UN water tax based on a country’s water footprint (don’t laugh – the idea is out there).

Water policy such as this will ensure that only some people will have water and many will continue to have-not. It is an unsustainable policy. The problem, of course, is that people do need safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water….but declaring this as a legal right will only succeed in making water attorneys more rich….I believe this approach will not achieve the desired outcome of water equity.

The United Nations by way of water is now active in California water policy….and is exerting more influence via “Friends of the UN” and other such organizations.

Expect this bill to be used to further argue for state-controlled and UN-controlled resdistribution of wealth (based on a water footprint) and water to the poor and poorer countries to equalize access to water, regardless of any economic impacts because now it is a legally declared human right.